Conference Rooms

Ballroom Kreuger

Kreuger is our largest room, you could even call it a ballroom, or a show room, or a yoga room, or concert room, or a fashion show room... Well you get it, it is a very large room with multiple uses.

The Kreuger brothers were huge stars of the financial world during their heyday. Today, it is difficult to comprehend the influence Torsten and Ivar had on the Swedish economy. Ivar’s life and career were especially dramatic, and parts of it seem to be taken out of an old-fashioned action movie, including the horrifying part when he, in 1932, was found shot to death in Paris. Still to this day there are speculations on whether it was suicide or if he was murdered. Why, for example, were the letters he left for his Swedish staff written in English? Theories about what actually happened to the world’s “Matchstick King” – the man that was so rich he lent his personal money to entire nations, France, Poland, Bolivia, and Turkey to mention a few; and who had 250 factories in over 43 countries – are flourishing on the Internet, and the subject is covered in several books.

Besides sharing an interest in business deals, Ivar, the eldest brother, and Torsten, one-time owner of Häringe, shared a deep interest in custommade motorboats and they kept many of their boats down by the jetty. The younger brother, Torsten, bought Häringe in 1929, and it was his tremendous curiosity in both fun and odd inventions that led to a number of modernizations at the palace. One of the more conventional efforts was an 18-mile-long fence that used to surround the estate. It was erected to keep the roe deer’s from leaving the grounds before the hunting season. The two-storey outdoor slide (later removed by Marguerite Wenner-Gren), mechanical bowling alley (the first of its kind in Sweden and still in use today), Sweden’s first outdoor pool, and a convenient underground passage that connected the main building with the wing allowing the ladies to avoid getting their hair wet when it rained, can be considered some of Torsten’s more unconventional endeavours.

Torsten also saw to it that the palace was renovated and the rooms were made bigger and brighter, which was much appreciated amongst the many guests who came for parties and business dinners where the staff would, sometimes, be serving cocktails completely naked. Although Torsten was married three times, he considered Häringe to be his very own playboy mansion, and his wife and children were never invited to visit the palace.

Before Torsten was sentenced to penal labour for fraud and false bookkeeping – in a trial that hindsight commonly deems an outrageous miscarriage of justice – he focused on the banking, industrial, and newspaper businesses. During his years at Häringe, Torsten owned three large newspapers in Stockholm: Aftonbladet, Stockholms Dagblad, and Stockholms-Tidningen. However, despite his efforts to use these media outlets to fight for his case, Torsten was never granted a second trial. After satisfying his penalty, Torsten decided to spend the last years of his life in Geneva. Regardless of his sometimes gloomy life, people who have met Torsten always speaks about what an extraordinary man he was.

Here you'll find the grand figure decoration in intarsia from the 30s that Kreuger had built for the Swedish Tobacco Monopoly's first boardroom at Maria Bangata in Stockholm. The piece was made by the artist Ewald Dahlskog and is well preserved to this day.

Conference Room Jenny

Jenny is the favourite room for larger groups even though we have two larger rooms. It must be the light from the ceiling windows and the high ceiling that kkeps the energy levels high troughout meetings, or it might just be that it is so very close to the coffee bar...

The idea of starting her own hotel chain came to Jenny Ljungberg when she was working at the Marriott in Amsterdam, a property owned by her family. Jenny wanted to start a hotel chain that emphasized care for both people and the environment, where food is prepared according to the Slow Food philosophy, and where the design is a lively mix of antiques and witty modernism. As the chain’s name, c/o Hotels, indicates, each hotel should be a place where the guest always feels right at home.

While many dream about the perfect hotel – just look at all the movies and novels covering the subject – only a few have the energy to handle all the hard work. Before striking out alone, Jenny tried almost every hotel job available in order to thoroughly understand the business. She worked many posts, everything from the reception desk to a position as CEO at c/o Tammsvik Herrgård. However, don’t assume that Jenny was treated with silk gloves for being the owner’s daughter – quite the contrary. More often than not, a pair of good old rubber gloves was the necessary everyday accessory.

Today, only a few years later, c/o Hotels has started to take shape as a chain of hotels built on equal parts vision, inherited entrepreneurial spirit, and personal experience.

Jenny, who grew up in Sweden, America, and Belgium, first came to America in the 1980s, when her father, Åke, acted on his impulse to emigrate with the family and make a living selling Swedish-style houses to wealthy Americans. Today Jenny lives in New York and despite having the Atlantic Ocean between her and Häringe Palace, she is committed, concerned, and involved with every detail and important decision. Perhaps Jenny’s bachelor’s degree in psychology is partly to blame for her endless curiosity, which helps her easily connect with both people and animals. By the way, c/o Hotels welcomes the latter at all locations, no matter if it’s at c/o Häringe Palace in Stockholm or c/o The Maidstone in the Hamptons.

Conference Room Åke

In Åke's conference room there are a thousand Buddhas overseeing the conference guests, bringing them peace. The photo art is by world famous Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Some people never stop to think whether they have succeeded or failed – they simply don’t have the time for it. In 1983, Åke Ljungberg took over from his father as CEO of Tagehus. Until then, Åke had been a man of leisure, frequently using his golden key to access the VIP entrance at Stockholm’s Hard Rock Café. (After all, it was the 1980s, and both champagne and money were flowing.)

New doors were about to open for both Åke and the company. In 1984, the company purchased land in the mountain village Åre and Åke started building a resort and his own nightclub. However, by opening night the space still wasn’t finished, so it was given the name “Bygget” (The Construction) and a topping out party was held on New Year’s Eve. The resort’s spa area, with a pool both inside and out, soon became the talk of the town. Åke – who, by the way, was famous for fixing everything he owned with duct tape – soon left his position as CEO and planned to move his family to the USA. He wanted to create his personal fortune building homey, Swedish-style wooden houses for rich Americans. There was just one small problem: the family’s visa applications were turned down. Since their belongings had already been shipped stateside, the family of five had no choice but to spend three idle months living in the basement of Åke’s sister, Birgitta.

Åke saw opportunity everywhere and never considered anything to be a problem – not even the remarkable acquisition or pricey ownership and complicated disposal of three oil platforms in Brazil scared him away. Throughout his career, Åke was involved in an impressive list of real estate, hotel, construction and other varied ventures worldwide, including: 1,500 student apartments in the USA’s state of Georgia; the Swedish domestic airline company Gotlandsflyg; a Norwegian shipping company; the oil platform adventure in Brazil; property investments in Russia; the outdoor company Fjällräven; H & H Ferries; land deals in Portugal; and a life guard company in Norrköping, Sweden, to mention a few. Today, Åke is retired and has left his business in the hands of his children. His daughter, Jenny Ljungberg, runs c/o Hotels, which owns

Conference Room Tage

Tage Ljungberg – grandfather to Häringe’s present owner, Jenny – laid the groundwork for a family empire. Looking back some 60 years later, it almost seems like a whimsical twist of fate that Torsten Kreuger, Häringe’s owner at that time, played a part in the family’s success story.

As luck had it, Tage Ljungberg received a generous bonus after he renovated Stockholms Tidningen, a property then owned by Mr Kreuger. The bonus allowed Tage to resign from his job and start his own company. Tage’s first independent project was to build a house on Älgstigen 1, in the posh area known as Djursholm outside Stockholm. To his disappointment, the house became too expensive and he sold it to the family dentist. Next, Tage started work on a new house on Älgstigen 2. When the spectacular project was completed, the family received an offer that they couldn’t turn down from the wealthy businessman Georg Bengtsson. Eventually Tage finished a third house, on Villavägen 21, which he and the Ljungberg family moved into themselves. Subsequently, something of a Ljunbergian building boom began and the family business has been going strong since.

Tage, who lost his mother at the age of seven and started working when he was 15, met great success building everything from private homes, terrace houses, and suburban apartments to large reconstruction projects such as the Stockholm International Fairs and Grand Hôtel. He earned a reputation of being expensive, but also very good and thorough. Humbly, Tage himself often attributed his success to plentiful job opportunities at the time when he was making a name. However, an observer can easily see, his success comes from a talented strategy and not mere luck. Tage’s children, Åke and Birgitta, took over the notable company in 1983.

In 2006, the real estate company LjungbergGruppen merged with the real estate management company Atrium Fastigheter, establishing Atrium Ljungberg.

Board Room Stockholm

Stockholm has always been the base for the Ljungberg family’s enterprise since the day of Tage Ljungberg – the family’s grandfather, who started his own company with the bonus he received after renovating a building owned by Torsten Kreuger. However, that does not imply that all of their companies have been based in Sweden. Quite the contrary! The geographical expansion is thanks to Åke Ljungberg, who moved to the USA to sell Swedish-style wooden houses in the late 1980s. Åke also bought oil platforms in Brazil, acquired land in Russia, and took over a hotel in Amsterdam, just to mention a few.

Today, Jenny Ljungberg lives in New York and Los Angeles, but parts of the head office still operate from Stockholm.

Conference Room Åre

In the mid 1980s, Åke Ljungberg bought land in the Swedish skiing village Åre, and he started building a mountain resort with everything, including a nightclub scheduled to have a spectacular grand opening on New Year’s Eve. However, not even a property developer can get construction workers to stay on schedule. The New Year was getting closer, but the venue still wasn’t finished. Åke – being the resourceful and creative man he was – solved the problem by naming the nightclub “Bygget” (The Construction), turning the chaos into an event. It was a great success! The spa section featured an indoor-outdoor pool, which caught a lot of attention and was considered to be the height of luxury at the time. Today Åre Fjällby, as the resort is called, is one of the biggest resorts in the area but the Ljungberg’s have moved on and invested in a café located on one of the mountaintops.

Group Room New York

Åke Ljungberg decided to try his fortune in the US. The year was 1987 and he had purchased land in Westchester, north of New York City, where he planned to build genuine, Swedish-style wooden houses. The Ljungberg family packed everything and prepared for the move across the Atlantic – they rented out their house, the children quit school, and all of their furniture was shipped off. Everything was taken care of and everyone was ready to go, but then…

Their visa applications were turned down! The family was forced to move into the basement of Åke’s sister’s house for what they thought would be just a few days. They ended up staying for three months. The youngest child, Tom, was only 10 months old, but Johan and Jenny didn’t have a school to go to, and their mother, Marianne, was less than pleased with the entire situation.

When the family finally made it to the US, they borrowed a house called Walhalla while Åke’s first Swedish-style wooden house was being built in Mamaroneck, New York. Aunt Birgitta’s basement started to seem like paradise in comparison to the half-finished house, located 45 minutes outside Manhattan, they now had on their hands. Eventually the family adapted to the American way of life: Marianne became a member of SWEA (Swedish Women’s Educational Association) and Jenny got a puppy for Christmas (she also received the must-have jacket of the year, a Chevignon with a flying duck on the back – her new classmates were impressed). They spent each Friday night in front of the TV where Jenny and her brother Johan could enjoy Oreos and see new episodes of both Dallas and Falcon Crest right after each other! Something that was impossible in Sweden at the time.

Of the ten planned wooden houses only three were finished but Åke already had a thousand new ideas. The family received many guests in their American home and they hosted many barbeque evenings by the pool, which were always appreciated by visitors, no doubt.

Groop Room Amsterdam

In the early 1990s, Åke Ljungberg became the property owner of the Marriott Hotel in Amsterdam and it was at that same Marriott that Jenny, Åke’s daughter, was first introduced to the hotel business (but the true reason Jenny moved to Amsterdam was to smuggle home her dog Boomer from the USA) Jenny’s interest grew, much due to the atmosphere and the friendly working environment at the Marriott. Today she owns the hotel chain known as c/o Hotels.

Åke’s involvement with the Marriott Hotel gave the Ljungberg family the opportunity to attend the inauguration of the American President – twice. The reason being that the Marriott family is one of the biggest contributors to the Republican Party and as such, they may invite personal guests to the prestigious event. Marianne Ljungberg attended the ceremony and has witnessed George Bush Junior take office, on both occassions.

Group Room Beaver Creek

Jenny Ljungberg’s passion for hotels is in her genes. Her father, Åke, was first in the Ljungberg family to show an interest in the hotel business. He founded Tage Hotels in Sweden and owned several other hotels abroad. In the early 1990s, the family visited beautiful, scenic Beaver Creek in Colorado. Åke soon became very fond of the place and bought a condo in Strawberry Park, a facility built by a man named Bob. Bob had another exciting project in the pipeline: the luxury hotel Beaver Creek Lodge – where Jenny got her first summer job and she loved it. Åke initially stepped in as partner of the Beaver Creek Lodge, but in the end he ended up the sole owner of the project, due to Bob’s apparent lack of business sense.

Unfortunately, the hotel was later sold off to cover losses on failed oil platform projects in Braziland Norway. Åke’s children eventually bought the hotel back but later ended up selling it once again. The new owner, Embassy Suites, was eager to obtain the property where Jenny first started dreaming of a hotel of her own.

Conference Room Electrolux

When you read about Axel Wenner-Gren, it is hard not to remark on how modern he seemed to be for his time. Axel was born in Uddevalla, studied three languages, worked for his relatives, made some really good deals on stamps, then went to Berlin to continue his studies. This is more or less how many teenagers act today, but with the great exception that Axel did it over 100 years ago. Axel also wanted a distinguished feature to his name, so he added the hyphen between Wenner and Gren – a Wennergren could be anybody, but there was only one Wenner-Gren!

Axel was an ace when it came to sales. He learned the trade during his years with the German division of Separator, where, despite his colleagues’ repeated attempts to cheat, he won every sales competition. Axel was also early to recognize a business opportunity in people’semerging interest in hygiene.

Axel first saw a vacuum cleaner in a store window in Vienna, but he realised that the device had to be made a lot smaller and sleeker in order for diligent housewives to be able to use it. He put Elektromekaniska AB in charge of the Swedish development. Shortly thereafter, he merged the company with LUX AB, a company he had bought the freehold of, and Electrolux was born.

Electrolux was a landslide success. The company sold more vacuum cleaners than all other competitors combined. In less then a decade, the company established itself around the globe, with over 10,000 employees, factories in five countries, affiliates in 20 countries, and sales representatives in most of the world’s industrial markets. And hygiene continued to be a cash cow. After conquering the vacuum cleaner business, Mr Wenner-Gren managed to do what many others before him had failed at: to develop a fully functional refrigerator. Today, over 40 million customers in 150 countries choose to purchase a new household appliance from Electrolux each year.

Conference room Kungsörnen

When Axel Wenner-Gren was the ruler of Häringe, he made certain that the palace’s farm was managed in a scrupulous manner. Each morning the breakfast bell rang on time; soon-to-be housewives diligently studied home economics at the property’s girls’ school; and the milk was of such pristine quality that it was donated to the Stockholm Children’s Hospital.

Axel had most certainly learned much about agriculture during his years at the company Separator (later renamed Alfa Laval). And he turned that knowledge into money. You see, up until 1961, Fulcrum controlled two-thirds of the Swedish seed mill industry and Kungsörnen, a producer of flour and pasta, was one of Axel’s successful mill companies. Additionally, Mr Wenner-Gren earned big money on powdered milk and mother’s milk substitutes in Mexico through the Swedish company, Semper.

Group Room Fulcrum

Unlike his other companies, Axel Wenner-Gren’s holding company was not named after himself. Fulcrum is Latin for a pivot point, and what a powerful pivot point it was. Fulcrum was the hub for all of Axel’s business endeavours and for a long period of time, he was the richest man in all of Sweden. Today, while the name Fulcrum no longer belongs to the mighty Wenner-Gren Group, it is used by an Italian bicycle tire manufacturer, a student newspaper in Ottawa, and a Russian fighter airplane.

It was after Axel Wenner-Gren passed away in 1961 that the truth about Fulcrum’s finances was brought to light. To this day, it is uncertain how much Axel actually knew about the situation. Over the years, many have become quite disturbed by Axel’s remarkable inability to surround himself with good advisors and sane business contacts. Wherever he went, Axel attracted swindlers and charlatans: in Mexico, he was close friends with the president’s brother, who was notorious for accepting bribes; during his blacklisting, Axel allied himself with riffraff that only made things worse; and for trustee of his estate (a position needing utmost integrity), Axel had Birger Strid. Rumour has is that Axel became more and more confused with age, which gave Mr Strid and the board opportunity to move enormous sums of money as they pleased. Fulcrum, the formerly bright and powerful empire, was shaken to the core. As gossip spread without anyone to defend the truth, everything worth selling at Häringe was given a price tag. Even the golden faucets in Marguerite’s bathroom were put up for sale.

During the summer of 1975, Birger Strid was sentenced with two years in prison and 21 million Swedish kronor in damages. He declared his innocence and claimed to have done everything in his power to save the estate. In court, it was proved that Birger did act wrongfully, however, it should be mentioned that several people later said Birger had been caught in an impossible economic situation.

After he finished his prison sentence, Birger Strid once again showed up at Häringe Palace. He came to return a bronze bust belonging to his former employer.

Group Room The Viking Foundation

Axel Wenner-Gren’s great confidence was widely recognized. Since achieving great success already as a teenager, Axel believed that he could do just about anything. By all certainty, that is why he tried to mediate peace through tactless meetings with prime ministers and presidents of the time, which eventually led to his disgraceful and devastating blacklisting during World War II.

To save some of the money in the American division of Electrolux from being confiscated, Axel founded The Viking Foundation. The former movie director from Hungary, Paul Fejos, was appointed president of the foundation, which was created to support anthropological research. Paul and Axel became very close friends, and the Hungarian nurtured Mr Wenner-Gren’s interest in research and science. Axel had found his new calling and from this point onwards, more and more of his time – and money – was spent on the progress of research. Since he didn’t have children, one might also suspect that this was Axel’s way of leaving something for the world after he was gone. On the other hand, Axel was a vain man who wanted to become more famous than Nobel. In 1961, shortly after Axel’s death, Professor Hugo Theorell described Axel as a great man with a great idea: “In brief the idea was that scientific methods should be applied to all forms of human life and activities to provide all human beings on earth with a happier life.” Only a couple of months later, the Wenner-Gren Centre, a tower and building complex in Stockholm, was inaugurated by King Gustav VI Adolf. Festivities were held on the 24th floor of the high-rise building, and guests included the Queen, Axel’s wife Marguerite, and many foremost scientists of the time.

“I believe that it can be said, without exaggeration, that the interest for research in its every shape and form has been a passion for Dr.Axel Wenner-Gren,” the King said in his speech about the man whose presence could be felt by those gathered. The foundation continues to contribute significant funding for research to this day.

Group Room Alweg

Axel Wenner-Gren invested willingly and generously in inventions and development industries. It started with the refined vacuum cleaner, closely followed by the refrigerator, and it just continued on after that. Axel managed to acquire and develop phone companies in Mexico; he invested in mineral extraction, hydroelectric power, and infrastructure in the inhospitable areas of British Columbia, Canada; and in Köln he established the company Alweg-Forschung (a made-up name based on his own) to develop the railroad system of the future. Alweg was an above-ground monorail system that, according to Wenner-Gren and his team, would put the subway out of business. Unfortunately, Alweg never became the huge success they hoped for, although one working example of the system can be found at Disneyland.

Group Room Alwac

It was during the period when Axel Wenner-Gren invested and developed his monorail system that he became interested in computers. Mr Wenner-Gren, who was always looking for the next technical boom, saw the future potential in computers and quickly bought a computer factory in California. He named the company Alwac (yet another variation of Axel Wenner-Gren’s own name). In February 1975, newspapers reported that Alwac was planning to manufacture their smaller “computer brains” in the Swedish town Norrköping. Eventually, the company also opened offices in Canada and the UK.

Alwac developed computers that were so good they managed to beat famous chess masters. Still, the machines were extremely expensive and hard to move off store shelves. The first computer was donated to the US Air Force in 1954. Finland and Sweden later received their very own computers, paid for by Wenner-Gren through his holding company, Fulcrum. When the Swedish bank SEB was obtaining Electrolux stocks, the deal stipulated that SEB would also buy an Alwac machine, but in the end it was never completed, nor delivered.